Windows® Internals, Sixth Edition, Part 2

There are no Windows functions for creating reparse points. Instead, processes must use the FSCTL_SET_REPARSE_POINT file system control code with the Windows DeviceIoControl function. A process can query a reparse point’s contents with the FSCTL_GET_REPARSE_POINT file system control code. The FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT flag is set in a reparse point’s file attributes, so applications can check for reparse points by using the Windows GetFileAttributes function.

Another type of reparse point that NTFS supports is the junction. Junctions are a legacy NTFS concept and work almost identically to directory symbolic links, except they can only be local to a volume. There is no advantage to using a junction instead of a directory symbolic link, except that junctions are compatible with older versions of Windows, while directory symbolic links are not.

EXPERIMENT: Creating a Symbolic Link

This experiment shows you the main difference between a symbolic link and a hard link, even when dealing with files on the same volume. Create a symbolic link called soft.txt as shown here, pointing to the test.txt file created in the previous experiment:C:\>mklink soft.txt test.txt symbolic link created for soft.txt <<===>> test.txt

If you list the directory’s contents, you’ll notice that the symbolic link doesn’t have a file size and is identified by the type. Furthermore, you’ll note that the creation time is that of the symbolic link, not of the target file. The symbolic link can also have security permissions that are different from the permissions on the target file.C:\>dir *.txt Volume in drive C is OS Volume Serial Number is 38D4-EA71 Directory of C:\ 05/12/2012 11:55 PM 8 hard.txt 05/13/2012 12:28 AM soft.txt [test.txt] 05/12/2012 11:55 PM 8 test.txt 3 File(s) 16 bytes 0 Dir(s) 10,636,480,512 bytes free

Finally, if you delete the original test.txt file, you can verify that both the hard link and symbolic link still exist but that the symbolic link does not point to a valid file anymore, while the hard link references the file data.

Compression and Sparse Files

NTFS supports compression of file data. Because NTFS performs compression and decompression procedures transparently, applications don’t have to be modified to take advantage of this feature. Directories can also be compressed, which means that any files subsequently created in the directory are compressed.

Applications compress and decompress files by passing DeviceIoControl the FSCTL_SET_COMPRESSION file system control code. They query the compression state of a file or directory with the FSCTL_GET_COMPRESSION file system control code. A file or directory that is compressed has the FILE_ATTRIBUTE_COMPRESSED flag set in its attributes, so applications can also determine a file or directory’s compression state with GetFileAttributes.

A second type of compression is known as sparse files. If a file is marked as sparse, NTFS doesn’t allocate space on a volume for portions of the file that an application designates as empty. NTFS returns 0-filled buffers when an application reads from empty areas of a sparse file. This type of compression can be useful for client/server applications that implement circular-buffer logging, in which the server records information to a file and clients asynchronously read the information. Because the information that the server writes isn’t needed after a client has read it, there’s no need to store the information in the file. By making such a file sparse, the client can specify the portions of the file it reads as empty, freeing up space on the volume. The server can continue to append new information to the file without fear that the file will grow to consume all available space on the volume.

As with compressed files, NTFS manages sparse files transparently. Applications specify a file’s sparseness state by passing the FSCTL_SET_SPARSE file system control code to DeviceIoControl. To set a range of a file to empty, applications use the FSCTL_SET_ZERO_DATA code, and they can ask NTFS for a description of what parts of a file are sparse by using the control code FSCTL_QUERY_ALLOCATED_RANGES. One application of sparse files is the NTFS change journal, described next.